HDD Formatted twice accidentally, how to recover .exe files?

[abhinav]

Hi, guys!

I had two partitions in my laptop's HDD, one with 292 GB(C:) and other 175 GB(H:)
I was trying to install a LINUX OS in my laptop with a Linux DVD but accidentally clicked on the format button for H: drive.
My primary OS is Windows 7 Ultimate N x64. After Linux installation when i booted into Win 7 OS, i found H: drive was unallocated and was unable to recover data using "iCare Data Recovery Standard" or "MiniTool Power Data Recovery v6.8.0.0" or "EASEUS.Partition.Master.v9.1.0.Professional" as the space was unallocated. So, i created a new volume of it (161 GB, 8 GB still remains for Linux OS) and recovered some files(Pdf's, images, and videos) but couldn't recover .exe and .iso files which are of out-most importance for me.
I has been collecting OS images(.iso files) and many other useful softwares for me since past 4 years and all are gone now. All of it were the licensed versions.
So, can anyone please help me out with steps to recover those .exe setup files and the .iso files from the partition which has been formatted twice. The good thing for now is i have not over written any data in the H: drive for now. It's has 161 GB of free space now.

Thanks and Regards,
Abhinav Padmanabh
Email: abhinavpadmanabh@gmail.com

[HaQue]

Try GetDataBack from runtime software, it works very well.

but .exe in most cases need to be perfectly recovered, or they will be considered corrupt. ISO probably the same.
Goes without saying that if these were so important, you should have had a backup, and you didn't fully abide by the warnings given when doing the disk operations. But try GDB, it has worked well for me in the past. Good Luck.

[digitalferret]

hi abhinav,

not over familiar with GetDataBack, but whichever program you run, first of all have a spare drive attached to recover data to. A target drive. One would suggest making a full image of the drive and then work from that, but if you can't or don't have the capacity ...

either download GetDataBack / R-Studio or whatever, in demo mode and make a scan of the full disk, not just H:
Let the software identify the partitions. Try to avoid ones with "Wizard" menus in favour of ones that allow full disc scan.

If you can see the files you require, pay for the software and recover to the target drive.
Do not try to recover "in situ" to the same drive. Program files and iso files can be large.
You really need to find a file table of some sort to recover the files fully.
Simple file carving from unallocated fails miserably with large files due to data fragmentation

good luck.

K

[abhinav]

Dude, if i had a backup why would i post a thread here. Thanks for the suggestion you provided!
Will try this software and let you know if it works as expected.
Well, any more help would be appriciated!
Thanks,
Abhinav Padmanabh

Try GetDataBack from runtime software, it works very well.

but .exe in most cases need to be perfectly recovered, or they will be considered corrupt. ISO probably the same.
Goes without saying that if these were so important, you should have had a backup, and you didn't fully abide by the warnings given when doing the disk operations. But try GDB, it has worked well for me in the past. Good Luck.

[abhinav]

Thanks for the suggestion and your valuable time buddy
Appreciate your time and effort!
Thanks,
Abhinav Padmanabh

hi abhinav,

not over familiar with GetDataBack, but whichever program you run, first of all have a spare drive attached to recover data to. A target drive. One would suggest making a full image of the drive and then work from that, but if you can't or don't have the capacity ...

either download GetDataBack / R-Studio or whatever, in demo mode and make a scan of the full disk, not just H:
Let the software identify the partitions. Try to avoid ones with "Wizard" menus in favour of ones that allow full disc scan.

If you can see the files you require, pay for the software and recover to the target drive.
Do not try to recover "in situ" to the same drive. Program files and iso files can be large.
You really need to find a file table of some sort to recover the files fully.
Simple file carving from unallocated fails miserably with large files due to data fragmentation

good luck.

K

[HaQue]

Sorry OP, but really was meant as a comment that other people reading this thread might take notice of.. I know you have already had bad luck but hopefully a little good may come from it if other people take notice and do a backup..
Sorry about the bad luck you had.